Overview

Amid the global financial crisis, USIP examines how the U.S. Treasury Department can play a smarter role in international affairs and national security.  This working paper outlines the Treasury Department's current functions on both the national and international stage, and how it could utilize its existing resources to more effectively strengthen public finance institutions in developing countries, address financial upheavals as well as combat illicit finance. Author Jeremy Pam, a visiting research scholar at the Sustainable Economies Center of Innovation at USIP, makes specific recommendations on how to better leverage the Treasury Department to fulfill its potential to play a strategic role in international affairs that strengthens finance institutions in developing countries and, in doing so, serves U.S. national security interests.

About the Author

This USIP Working Paper was written by Jeremiah S. Pam, a visiting research scholar with the Sustainable Economies Center of Innovation at the U.S. Institute of Peace. From May 2006 to May 2007, Pam served in the U.S. Treasury Department as the financial attaché in Baghdad, where he was the senior Treasury official in Iraq and led the U.S. Embassy’s financial diplomacy and policy efforts. In March and April 2008, Pam was the Treasury member of a team organized by the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and the Multi-National Force–Iraq to conduct an assessment of Iraqi governance and U.S. governance assistance efforts throughout Iraq. From November 2008 through February 2009, he served as the Treasury codirector of a U.S. Central Command-organized interagency strategic assessment of the Middle East, and helped lead the assessment mission to Afghanistan. Previously, he was an international finance lawyer with an international firm in New York, where he advised governments on resolving sovereign debt crises.